Get an IT Boost from the CompTIA Plus Conference

If you've been to the supermarket or member's club warehouse store recently, then you've probably noticed one or more signs or displays encouraging you to get a flu shot. It's the time of year when colds, sniffles, and infections generally come out of hiding and quickly spread from person to person, so a flu shot provides essential protection.

In somewhat the same way, winter is a time when IT professionals generally stay hunkered down at their desks and don't necessarily do much to engage with other like-minded individuals. The conferences and conventions that seem to fill up the calendar in spring, summer, and fall, are more or less figuratively on ice until the next spring thaw.

So CompTIA Plus is both somewhat unique for being an IT conference that occurs in winter, and ought to provide a welcome interruption to stodgy routine for many tech workers. It's a bit like a professional booster shot, a jolt of IT interaction to fortify your spirit help get you through the long months of solitary confinement ahead.

Best of all, CompTIA Plus, set to unfold Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is both fee-free and travel-free. You don't have to worry about either coughing up from your own financial reserves, or making that awkward request of the boss for both time away from work and a direct line to the company expense account.

CompTIA Plus offers a full lineup of speakers who will be addressing both broad and specific topics. You can sit in on "Today's IT Challenges" at 10:30, then jump over to "Linux Security: What You Need to Know" just before noon. (The day's other two sessions are "Virtualization Best Practices" and "Datacenter to Cloud: Lessons Learned from ERP Migration.")

Attendance at CompTIA Plus is open to tech professionals from every background, but it's likely to be particularly fruitful for those who are CompTIA members, or hold CompTIA certification (or both). There will be CompTIA-specific news and updates throughout the day, and you can get recertification-ready CEU credit by attending.

CompTIA executive Kelly Ricker said in a press release that CompTIA Plus has something to offer to professionals at every level. "The educational content planned for the CompTIA Plus is relevant for IT professionals across the career spectrum, from recent hires to seasoned veterans," Ricker said.

Registration is required to attend, and can be completed online.